picardow

TAP talks about the military’s concerns with global warming, and its interest in clean energy: What effects is the military worried about? Increasing water scarcity, rising temperatures, increased extreme weather events, more natural disasters, particularly in low-lying areas in Africa and Asia, [and] reduced agricultural production, putting stress on areas where people already don’t have […]

Mark Schmitt says sorry, TNR, but Obama is still more Reagan than Carter: John Judis says, of the economy, that “if Obama could command [Reagan’s] numbers, Democrats could seriously limit their losses in November.” But not only are Obama’s numbers better than Reagan’s, Reagan didn’t “seriously limit” his own losses. The economy in 1982 flipped […]

Matthew Yglesias says Obama’s easing of travel restrictions on Cuba is a reminder that U.S.-Cuban relations are a massive, decades-long case study in the limits of conservative foreign-policy: The debate over policy toward Cuba has traditionally been tied up in the conflict between the over-the-top anti-Castro sentiments of the right and the curious affection some […]

Devin Fergus reports that a controversial provision in the financial-reform bill doesn’t include racial quotas, but it does promise to redress long-standing inequalities in the financial sector: Buried in the financial-reform bill President Obama signed in July is an innocuous-sounding provision, Section 342. It establishes Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI) in each federal […]

Harold Meyerson says SEIU’s new secretary-treasurer is a champion of immigrant rights and an innovator in the fight to unionize marginalized service-industry workers: In the wake of the resignation last week of Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger, Mary Kay Henry, the new president of the Service Employees International Union, sent a memo last Friday to members of […]

Paul Waldman reports that even if Democrats lose seats this fall, they may come out ahead on the redistricting fight thanks to a slew of new organizations: As Washington wonders whether the shudder-inducing words “Speaker of the House John Boehner” will soon be on lips across the country, the implications of the fall elections for […]

Jacob S. Hacker says if reform is to succeed, progressives will have to fight for a stronger government role, including a public option: Sen. Tom Harkin put the point well when he described the health bill as a “starter home.” What Harkin neglected to mention is that the home isn’t built yet, and the construction […]

Jonathan Cohn on job No. 1: Write new rules for health insurers and make sure they follow them: Now that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is law, the Obama administration has to translate the law’s requirements into specific rules, particularly for the health-insurance industry. The act requires insurers to do a lot of […]

Paul Starr says supporters of reform knew they had to battle to get it passed. Now they need to wage another campaign to implement it: The reforms will have to be defended in two national elections because the major provisions don’t go into effect until January 2014. Assuming the law survives national efforts to reverse […]

Gabriel Arana on why when an employee blows his top, the company is often the one to blame: Workplaces in which employees have little say in the decision-making processes, where rules are applied inconsistently, and where there is lack of sincerity and respect among colleagues tend to foster revenge-seeking behavior. But most important, many of […]